Summer Olympics to be Held in Tokyo Without Spectators

The Japanese Olympic Committee announced yesterday that the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will be held without spectators. This is in part due to the city’s Coronavirus state of emergency through the games. Yesterday Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said “the number of infected cases in the area including Tokyo has been increasing since the end of last month,” and confirmed the games would be held under a state of emergency. The announcement was made after a meeting of five Olympic and Japanese government groups responsible for the games. There are a total of 42 venues listed on the Olympic website and 25 of those are in Tokyo, the other seven are in prefectures. Three of the prefectures which are near Tokyo will not have spectators during the games. Miyagi, Fukushima and Shizuoka prefectures have decided that the venues can be filled at 50% capacity with a maximum of 10,000 spectators. Japanese Olympic Committee President Seiko Hashimoto said due to the pandemic, organizers have “no choice but to hold the games in a limited way.” Organizers are reviewing the decision to allow stakeholders into the stadium during the opening ceremony.